Multi-media library / Library improvements

[Shadowizard]

Here's a bunch of library ideas

We should be able to archive holodisks and tapes like library books. Then both tapes and holodisks will be used more. It also gives the librarian more things to do. Perhaps a researchable improvement on the holopads to allow for movies with multiple people? (Digression: holodeck disks you can build in?)

Paintings should have a persistent gallery. Paintings in the gallery should be able to be printed as posters. This way artists are rewarded for going through the sheer crappiness of painting. (Will we ever get a nicer painting interface?)

Newscaster data should be saved in a newspaper archive. Station announcements probably shouldn't be saved, but player-created channels should be. It'd probably be best to have a delay of a day or so to prevent people from using it as evidence for meta-grudges etc.

Put random media in other places on the station. Stick some of these database books in places books would be. Same with the tapes and disks if they get added. Make PDA's playback tapes only to the person they're holding.

Put the little bit of wiki lore into the library. Have the guide books printable under corporate materials. Let librarians print wanted posters of criminals wanted in sec records (or make a spot in the library to display wanted posters and some kind of bounty-hunter infrastructure). Have a book or plaque always spawn that tells an in-universe-ified version of /tg/station's actual history beyond saluting the Goons.

Make certain items give minor buffs to everyone in the library when put in the display stands. This gets people into the library, and gives the stands a purpose. Expanding on this, give the curator a way to lavaland (just a civilian entrance to the mining shuttle's other side would work so others can get on the shuttle without going through cargo) and have lava/space ruins give better stuff. Let the stands delete items after a certain amount of time for balance, with more powerful items disappearing after less rounds. Gives the curator more stuff to do.

Track down one of the RPG rulesets I know are somewhere in the library and make the game room start with a few books. You could expand on this and make a core rulebook and DM book spawn, and then have supplements in random(ruin) locations. Have a semi-persistent bookcase that drops books after a certain amount of rounds so turbonerds have something else to collect from ruins. Imagine tracking down a particular supplement one round and playing with it the next. Speaking of /tg/ related shit, did that MTG ripoff ever get merged? Maybe we can try that again.

For that matter, more collectables. Fish or bugs or stamps or whatever. Maybe collect a readout for every random event? Again make it drop after a certain amount of rounds to keep people searching. Maybe give minor buffs to people in the library when the collection is complete.

Stuff a radio station in there back room. Have it (and presumably the pirate radio station) use an extra channel all headsets can listen to but not speak on. (Since it's an extra channel it'd be toggleable if you don't want to listen to it).

I know for a fact there's VR in the code. Map it in and stick the pods in the library. Have VR corporate training modules.

Give the library a coffee shop. Make some coffee-related mixed drinks. Hire assistants as baristas or some shit. I dunno.

Remember that the library is a public space, this stuff makes the library more interesting and gets people to check it out. It benefits everyone. Most of the station's areas have a wonderful variety of mechanics. There's a lot of potential for the library to be interesting.

Also, can we please get some new sprites for the whip and touchstone? I'm tired of running around with a strand of hair and a mouldy cheeto in my bag.

[oranges]

this isa good idea

[Selea]

I think, that curator profession should be replaced with IT dept.
And IT should deal with library(virtual one), telecomms,VR,circuits,possibly other computer things.
All media content manipulation should be sticked into PDA/tablets/consoles.

[DemonFiren]

inb4 they broadcast a WGW virus to everyone every round

Actually, fund it.

[Lumbermancer]

The thing is no one will care in the long run, unless the gimmick gives out some tangible benefits.

This is what I suggested, 4 years ago.

Someone on ooc said yesterday "delete library, it's useless" and "no one read books". This of course shouldn't ever be allowed, the legacy and server heritage contained within these books must be preserved.

Then I started to think of ways to make people pick Librarian again. It's true, no one read books, I don't think anyone writes them anymore either. So what's the other role of Librarian? News reporting of course. But Schlomo, I hear you say, no one reads Newscasters either! Why is that? Because there's usually gibberish, or low quality reports only. Why reports are of low quality? Because running around with camera is boring, and when I asked HoS for an interview he insulted my mother and threw me out of the brig!

So how do we make news reporting easier, faster and more fun?

What if in his little office space, Librarian had special intercom that would allow him to tap to and listen to any radio frequency? Similar to one AI has in core, or the one in DJ station? This would increase the accuracy of news, as well as make people more inclined to follow your feed! Civilian Librarian would be more fun, but It would also make Librarian traitor or changeling more viable. And on top of that librarian would become person of increased value during rev and cult, because of intel he could provide.

As an added bonus the printer could be moved inside the desk area, so AI can print out photos there.

I'm sure there are broader implications of this that I have not considered, for now it's the best Idea I can come up with.

Make Curator also a reporter.

[SpaceInaba]

>he doesnt already curator report and then try to peddle his newspapers around station

[Lumbermancer]

The point is to give him more reporting tools, so the experience is more fun and people are more inclined to follow the news. Like spy radio, maybe even thermal goggles which would also let you see everyone records, directional microphone. Reporter must get all the scoop.

[SpaceInaba]

Being able to interview people properly would be great

[Lumbermancer]

Recorder technology is outdated.

[SpaceInaba]

we need ss13 snapchat

[SpaceInaba]

wait no how do I delete a post

[Mickyan]

I very much enjoy that the curator has shifted towards being the job that handles the more persistent features like display cases and soapstones and would love to see more of that. They might be gimmicks but they're fun gimmicks and it's interesting to see what people have been up to in previous rounds.

The big issue I see with the current features is that it's too easy for people to fill them with garbage and make impossible to find the interesting stuff. Some of it can be solved (or at least improved, you'll still get the occasional shitposts but most of it will be filtered out) with some form of crowd-sourced quality control.

Soapstones: as a curator it's impossible to keep up with erasing shitty messages, especially if they're in places that can't be easily accessed. Add a cap to the maximum amount of messages in the station and make it so poorly rated messages get deleted first

Display cases: need a similar rating and removal system as soapstones, but only accessible to other curators

Books: Adding a book to the database should require some amount of effort and a way for curators to remove them. Idea: When you upload a book it's added to a temporary database, you must then get it signed by X amount of people within a certain amount of (IRL) time to have it permanently added. Curators can then mark a book for deletion through the computer and a similar process is started, where other curators can either approve or deny the request and the book is removed if it reaches a certain approval score within a certain amount of time. If you want to keep the existing books they could go in a legacy database that's somewhat hidden within the library computer

[NanookoftheNorth]

Most of your ideas are great.

I think a minor buff to being in the library should be maybe lack of hunger due to how engaged one is in the environment.

I think that having a secondary entrance to lavaland's shuttle discourages interaction between departments, so that's a little too far.

I love the idea of persistent material outside of books and soapstone engravings to be curator's job. Paintings, newspapers, printable corporate material, all sounds fantastic. The radio station sounds good too.

[Shadowizard]

With regards to the quality of community-generated content, my two cents is a mere rating system on the books (and if any of the above makes it into the game the other media as well). A one to five star system would fit the book theme and (speaking out of my ass as someone who knows nothing about SQL or TGUI) probably wouldn't be too hard to add. This means librarian would know the rough quality of the books they're printing. This way the shit is still around for those who seek it, but it's easier to separate the good from the bad.

In general, I think adding more for the librarian to do will lead to less shitposting. Most of the display cases I've seen were just bitching about rolling librarian.

We also have a library scanner system that nobody seems to ever use. Maybe that could be improved?

[DemonFiren]

librarians are made for shitposting though

[aradsten]

It feels like noonne goes to the library if they arent looking for wood or a quiet place to murder/hide someone. Library is a bit ancient if books already werent

[leibniz]

let PDAs view news channels and make them beep (unless toggled) when a story is posted

[Farquaar]

With regards to the quality of community-generated content, my two cents is a mere rating system on the books (and if any of the above makes it into the game the other media as well). A one to five star system would fit the book theme and (speaking out of my ass as someone who knows nothing about SQL or TGUI) probably wouldn't be too hard to add. This means librarian would know the rough quality of the books they're printing. This way the shit is still around for those who seek it, but it's easier to separate the good from the bad.

In general, I think adding more for the librarian to do will lead to less shitposting. Most of the display cases I've seen were just bitching about rolling librarian.

We also have a library scanner system that nobody seems to ever use. Maybe that could be improved?

Instead of a star system, we could have a simple good/bad system. Most people tend to rate things 5 or 1 star anyway, might as well cut out the middle man. On a similar note, I think libraries would benefit from a shelf that starts empty. As a curator, I only ever find people visiting the library if I construct a separate shelf to display specially selected quality works. Nobody reads the randomized stuff.

let PDAs view news channels and make them beep (unless toggled) when a story is posted

Perhaps even send out a station alert when a new news channel is opened? Having to advertise your own newscast gets takes time away from the already difficult task of reporting on station events. This way, people know to check the newscaster because there's somebody updating it. Maybe even add a system that says how many views a given story has, to encourage aspiring spess journalists?